Dangerous Liaisons
by SSAEmilyHotchner
Summary: Oneshot. What begins as an incident fueled by jealousy over a woman from Hotch's past and the desire of said woman to have him back, progresses into so much more; conflict, chaos, blood...and death. Post-ep for "Lo-Fi" and "Mayhem." Written for pise7en.


**Author's Note: I've had the idea for this story in my head ever since "Mayhem" (4x01) aired, but I could never formulate a good enough plot. Until, that is, the lovely pise7en, who is one of the nicest people ever and leaves the sweetest reviews known to man, gave me this prompt: **_**jealousy in a established relationship; something like a woman trying to seduce Hotch or a man trying to seduce Emily, but without success. **_**That's all it took for me to be able to pen this story. I honestly had a great time writing this, and I sincerely hope you all enjoy reading it! Laura, thank you so much for being awesome! Now, without further ado...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters.**

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><p>Emily watched with sharp eyes and pursed lips as Hotch walked past her, completely oblivious to her presence. He gave her no "good morning, beautiful" or "happy Friday, Emily" or…hell, not even a simple "hello."<p>

And she knew exactly why.

Kate.

_Freakin'._

Joyner.

The woman had been hounding him the entire week, and Hotch was _loving _the attention she was giving him. He followed her around like a little lost, lovesick puppy, and God…it made Emily sick to her stomach. Because it had gotten to the point where he made it like she was invisible. It was like she no longer had a place in his life.

Like she was no longer his girlfriend, the woman he went to bed with every night and worked alongside every day.

All because of one perky British blonde, who, in the words of JJ, looked _exactly_ like Haley.

Liaised in Scotland Yard, her ass.

JJ wasn't the only one to notice it, of course. They were _profilers_; the entire team noticed the furtive glances Hotch and Kate shot each other over the course of the investigation, the way Hotch began drawing away from his agents and instead began consulting with hers, the way Kate reached out to touch his elbow here and there.

The way she called him _Aaron_, in that despicable accent of hers.

Emily was still internally fuming when she felt a hand drop to her shoulder. Starting in shock, she whirled around…

…and came face to face with none other than Aaron Hotchner.

"Christ, Hotch, you scared the hell out of me," she mumbled, peering up at him with her dark brown eyes.

"Sorry," he murmured back, his hand slowly sliding down her arm. Their gazes locked. "Hey…are you okay?"

She looked at him warily. "I'm fine," she said flatly. "Why do you ask?"

Hotch shook his head. "Nothing, nothing. You just seem…not yourself lately."

_Look who's talking_, Emily wanted to say. But, of course, she kept quiet.

"If there's anything on your mind, you know you can always talk to me," he continued softly, his expression tender. "I've been told I'm a great listener."

Emily couldn't help it; she smiled. _This _was why she had fallen head over heels for him. His gentlemanly manner, his constant caring for the people around him. "You are," she said in response. "But…don't worry about me. We can talk later, okay?"

"Okay," Hotch agreed, nodding. Then, with a quick glance around the room to make sure no one was watching, he pressed a quick, chaste kiss to Emily's lips.

Emily wasn't content with quick or chaste, however, a fact she immediately made clear as she rose on her tiptoes and deepened their embrace. "Mmmm…"

Hotch nipped on her bottom lip swiftly, trying to hold himself back from tossing her over his shoulder and hauling her to a place where he could get his hands on her. "Good Lord, Emily…" he growled softly, finally breaking the kiss in need of air. "Wow. That was –"

"Aaron, can I have a word with you in private?"

Both dark-haired agents turned on their heels to face one Kate Joyner, who had just walked in from the outside hallway. Hotch glanced down at Emily for a split second, before nodding. "Sure."

And just like that, he was gone.

Staring at his retreating figure in incredulity, Emily scowled to herself.

Things needed to change, and they needed to change fast.

~.~.~

Hotch muffled Emily's scream by fusing his mouth to hers, swallowing any cries of pleasure she emitted in the throes of sheer ecstasy. Panting furiously as he held her body tightly and drew out his third release of the night, he couldn't help but fall onto her in a mix of satisfaction and exhaustion.

Emily watched through heavy-lidded eyes as Hotch propped up on his elbows, trying his best to put little to no weight against her chest. Her heart still beating wildly as she struggled to catch her breath, she shot him a brilliant smile as his lips found the underside of her left breast.

"Holy hell, Emily," he rasped against her skin. "I thought we said we wouldn't do this when we were away…when we had a case."

She cocked a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "Are you regretting it?"

"Definitely not," he immediately answered, returning her grin with a darkly handsome one of his own. "That was absolutely amazing. Blew my mind," he breathed.

"Amongst other things," she winked.

He laughed. "Yes, amongst other things." A brief silence blanketed the generic hotel room, during which Hotch busied himself with a taut pink nipple. Covering it with his mouth, he watched her intently as he suckled with not-so-gentle insistence, growling slightly as her head fell back against the pillows and she twined her fingers through his short, rough hair.

"Aaron," she gasped, halting him with a hand to his shoulder. "Stop or I'm going to need another round."

Hotch smirked. "You sure?"

She nodded, licking her lips slowly. "Yeah. We, uh…you said we could talk, right?"

It was a long minute before he understood what she meant. "Sure, sure," he said, maneuvering them into a sitting position, Emily lying against his bare chest. "What's on your mind?"

Emily pulled the sheet around her body tightly, suddenly feeling as if she was exposed, in more ways than one. A sigh slipped past her lips. "It's…it's Joyner," she finally relented, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. "You knew her previously?"

Hotch cleared his throat, glad that Emily could not see the current look on his face. Kate wasn't the _best_ post-coital conversation starter…but he should have known she would come up some day. "We've worked together before, yes."

Emily's eyes fell closed at his purposefully evasive answer. _You're going to be like this, Aaron?_ she wanted to ask. _Don't make me spell it out for you. _She couldn't suppress a shiver that ran down her spine as Hotch reached around to her front and took her hands in his. "At Scotland Yard?"

Hotch nodded, knowing Emily could feel the action against the back of her head. "At Scotland Yard," he repeated in confirmation.

Emily bit the inside of her cheek. "You didn't _just_ work with her…did you?"

He grimaced. _Oh, God. _"Em…"

"Did you?" she persisted.

Slowly, Hotch let his head drop to her shoulder. "No," he finally answered. "No, we didn't just work together." He watched as Emily turned around in his embrace, the sheet still tightly held to her chest. _Explain_, her eyes were telling him. And he did. "Haley and I were going through a rough patch and were already beginning to drift apart when Gideon and I were called to a conference in London. It was for a case involving Interpol and…a lot of shit happened," he sighed, knowing that Emily didn't care one bit for knowledge about the case. "Haley wouldn't pick up her phone; I was going to apologize for our fight the previous night, even though it wasn't my fault, but she adamantly refused to hear me out. I slipped up, got mad, got drunk…and then, Kate found me in the bar. Before we knew it, we were back at my hotel room and things that I'm not exceptionally proud of happened. She looked so much like Haley…and that was who I needed at the time, I guess. Haley. It was a one-night thing. We told each other that we'd forget it."

"But she didn't."

"She didn't," Hotch agreed. "Going into this case, I didn't know she would still have feelings for me."

Emily was worrying away at her bottom lip when she finally voiced the question that had been on her mind since day one of their time in New York. "Do you?" _Do you still have feelings for her?_

He looked at her in shock. "No!" he immediately exclaimed, holding her closer. "No…she was a lovely person, but that's all she was; a person who I substituted for Haley for one night. I regret it," he said lowly, his voice quiet. "Good God, I regret it. If I could go back in time and fix everything, I would. Granted, I never thought I'd have to see her again, and vice versa, but this…" His voice trailed away.

Emily downcast her eyes, her gaze resting on their intertwined fingers. "So…what are you going to do about it?" _About her? About us?_

Of course, Hotch knew on instinct what Emily meant. "I can't tell her about us, Emily," he said sadly.

Her gaze snapped up to meet his, an expression of shock written clearly across his features. _What?_ "Why not?"

"She'd make your life hell," he sighed, knowing it would sound like an excuse to Emily's ears. But he was serious! "Kate's the jealous type; if she knew we were together, she'd tell IAB without a second's hesitation. You don't need that stress, sweetheart. And honestly, neither do I. I don't want you to lose your job, and I don't want to lose mine." Hotch gave it a second's thought, then shook his head resignedly. "But Em…you mean more to me than my job," he whispered, his heart finally coming to a conclusion.

Her expression softened slightly. "Aaron…"

"I mean it," he said. "I'm sorry about all this; I don't want you to have to suffer the fallout of my screw-ups. If telling Kate will end this mess, then so be it."

"You don't have to name names," Emily pointed out. "Don't get me wrong, I can take her," she added, smiling just a titch as Hotch chuckled into the back of her neck. "But it would be easier."

"It would," Hotch agreed, quickly shooting up a prayer to whatever gods were listening that Emily would forgive him. Tentatively looking at her and leaning in for a kiss, he let out a relieved breath when she allowed their lips to meet in a lazy embrace. "I'll talk to her tomorrow."

~.~.~

However, 'tomorrow' found them in a hell much worse than the one they had previously imagined.

Emily's eyes were wild, her breath short, as she ran up to the barricade at Federal Plaza. _Please be okay,_ her mind was shouting as she took in the sight of the flames coming from the SUV. _Please be okay, Aaron. Please be okay. _Amidst all the chaos, only one thing was on her mind.

_I have to get over there and help him._

However, with just one glance at the burly agent guarding the barricade, she realized her task wasn't going to be as easy as she thought.

Emily cleared her throat, rising to her full height. "Let me through, please," she said, her voice flat.

The agent - Captain Warner, his name was - looked at her sternly. "You know I can't do that."

Emily struggled to keep her anger at bay. "I need to get through, and I need to do it now. _Please_. There are two agents over there who could be badly hurt. They need help," she said, her voice rising with every word.

Crossing his arms, Warner persisted. Behind him, an armed guard stepped closer. "Your team told us not to let anyone through to the street; you said the terrorists were more interested in attacking the first responders to an emergency than in attacking their initial targets. No one can go into the street until the blast site is clear. For your own interest, I _cannot_ let you pass. I'm sorry," he finished brusquely, in a tone that clearly stated he was more annoyed than apologetic.

A beat of silence passed, in which Emily didn't back down. She was waiting for him to cave, just waiting…

And then she heard it.

_"Help! We're over here!"_

Emily snapped. "My interest be damned!" she shouted at the agent. "That's my boss lying there on that pavement," she said, face contorted in a mixture of malice and worry. "He's going to _die_ if no one helps him." She gazed at him scrutinizingly. "You were a Marine?" she asked, glancing at the tattoo on his muscled arm. She waited for Warner to give a curt nod before continuing. "So was my father. '_Never leave a man behind'_," she quoted, hoping and praying to God that the motto would spur him into action. "If that was your boss lying there, dying, and I was the one stopping you from helping him, what would you do? Would you just shrug it off and walk away? Or would you fight?"

He didn't answer.

"Would you…fight...for your boss?" Emily repeated, almost in a shout.

Before Warner could say anything, they heard it again.

_"Please! We need help!"_

Warner looked at her tightly for a long second, then moved aside. "It's your life on the line. I hope you know that."

Silently thinking that she would _always_ risk her life for Hotch, Emily met his gaze. "And I'm okay with that."

And without another word, she skirted around the barricade and took off down the street.

_"Aaron!" _she yelled, hoping he could hear her. _"Aaron!"_

Multiple feet away, Hotch stole his gaze away from Kate's severed artery and glanced up at the voice calling his name.

_"Emily!" _His heart swelled as she neared. _She was safe._

Emily felt her heart drop to her stomach as she skidded to a stop beside Hotch and dropped to her knees.

Kate was dying, and there was nothing they could do about it.

"I called Garcia," Emily reported, trying not to focus on the amount of blood Kate had already lost. "She's sending an ambulance; it should be close."

Hotch nodded idly, his mind running circles. With the hand not clamping down Kate's artery, Hotch reached for Emily, taking comfort in her warm, soft skin pressed against his. Not caring who saw, he brought Emily's hand to his lips, telling her with his eyes just how glad he was to have her beside him, safe.

Lapsing in and out of consciousness, Kate gave a quiet groan, her eyes opening a fraction to look at the scene around her. "Aaron," she whispered.

Hotch turned back to her, his eyes wide with worry. "Yes, Kate?" he asked, his voice just as quiet.

"I'm…I'm cold." She laughed a little, then hissed as sharp pain rocketed through her body.

"Kate?" This time, it was Emily. "Kate, can you hear me?"

The blonde agent nodded imperceptibly, her eyes falling closed.

In a move that stunned Hotch, Emily placed a gentle hand on Kate's shoulder. "Hang in there, okay? Hang in there."

Kate nodded again, but barely a second had passed before she lost consciousness once more.

~.~.~

Kate had just been wheeled into surgery at St. Barclay's when Emily shot down the corridor, looking frantically for Hotch. She rounded the corner just in time to see him in the middle of the ER lobby, his eyes unfocused.

"Aaron?" she asked tentatively. Wheeling around to look at her, Hotch began to walk towards the nurses' station, towards _her_, but lost his balance and fell to the ground, bringing down a small metal cart with him as he lost consciousness.

"Aaron!" Emily gasped, her heart thudding madly in her chest as she ran over to him. Several nurses surrounded his battered body, immediately setting to work. His stark white shirt, as well as his arms and face, was bloodied, and Emily couldn't help but begin to cry as she watched the nurses lift him onto a gurney and wheel him into surgery as well.

There was nothing she could do but stand there and watch as he was taken away.

Sinking into a well-worn seat in the lobby, Emily let her head fall forward into her hands. What had begun as a trite little incident fueled by jealousy over a woman from Hotch's past and the desire of said woman to have him back, had progressed into so much more; conflict, chaos, blood.

Death.

Emily furiously swiped at her tears. _If only I could go back in time_, she thought, repeating Hotch's words from the night before. That night, when their only problem was a woman trying to drive a wedge in their relationship. The issues of that night seemed so futile now.

_If only I could go back in time._

_~.~.~_

Emily stood in the doorway, not speaking a word, and watched as Hotch stood by Kate's body, the harsh light casting shadows here and there. Everywhere. The techs didn't do too good a job mopping the floor of Kate's blood, Emily notices, shivering slightly at the sight. The only sound in the room was Hotch's labored breathing as he pulled aside the paper sheet covering Kate's body and took her cold hand in his.

_We did everything we could_, he hears the surgeon saying on a loop. The surgeon has long since left the room, but it's all Hotch can think about.

How 'everything' was just not enough.

Gently placing her hand beneath the sheet, he stands there for a minute longer before straightening his back and letting out a sigh. "She was a good agent," he says aloud, knowing Emily is standing behind him. He can feel her…sense her. He needs her strength, and he's never been more glad that she's there.

His voice in the otherwise silent room causes Emily to jerk slightly, before she takes the few steps needed to approach him. "I'm sorry," she says quietly, her heart wrenching as he gathers her into his arms and buries his face in her hair. "I'm sorry, Aaron."

"So am I," he responds, and it means so much. Because really, he's apologizing for everything. And Emily knows that.

They stand together, still wrapped up in each other's embrace, for a minute longer before Hotch pulls away. "Come downstairs with me and let me buy you a cup of coffee," he says, and Emily really has no other choice.

With one final glance toward the woman lying underneath the pale blue paper sheet, Hotch wraps an arm around Emily's waist, and they walk away.

~.~.~

"They found the bomber," Emily said, somewhat reserved.

"Was it the paramedic?" Hotch asked in return, his gaze focused on his thumb rubbing patterns on Emily's hand. "Ben Abner?"

Emily just nodded. _Of course he knew_, she thought to herself. _He's Hotch. He knows these things._

They sat at a table in the corner of the small coffee shop. The hospital blockade is over; it's open again, _finally_, but there only a handful people milling about.

"I was going to tell her," Hotch finally said, breaking the silence. "About us, I mean. We were just about to get into the SUV and I was about to bring it up…and then…"

And then, all hell broke loose.

Emily grabbed his hands in hers. "Aaron," she said incredulously, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry," he interjected, about to continue on his self-deprecating spiel. Emily stopped him with a finger to his lips, however.

"Don't apologize," she murmured. "I was foolish to think anything could come in the way of how I feel about you." She looked at him cordially. "These next few weeks are going to be tough; I know that much. But I want you to know that no matter what, I'll always be right here, just for you."

Hotch's expression fell into something so fragile, so tender. "Emily…"

She leaned across the table to press her lips to his. "Don't say anything. I know you're sorry. I know that if you could take everything back, you would. And above all, I know you're a compassionate man who would never do anything to hurt me, or let anything come between us. I know that, and that's all I need."

Hotch ran a hand through his hair, his eyes stinging. It was as if she had read his mind. "Thank you," he finally managed, his voice thick. "And I'm so –"

"If you say sorry one more time, I'm not going to drive you back to Quantico."

He blinked, surprised. "You're driving me? I thought Morgan was."

Emily shot him a smile. "I managed to get him to switch with me. Figured you wouldn't mind my company. At least…I hope you won't."

"I can't think of anyone with whom I'd prefer more to spend multiple hours in a car with. I love your company; you know that," Hotch said softly.

"I do," she said, nodding.

"And hey…Em?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you," he said, gazing deep into her eyes. "I'm not asking you to say it back immediately; hell, I understand if you don't want to say it back," he sighed. "But it's something I've been meaning to say for a long time, and now…now just seemed like the perfect moment. After everything we've been through, you've never failed me. I can't say the same for myself, but –"

"Oh, hush," Emily chided, kissing him again. "I love you, too, Aaron. Why wouldn't I say it back?"

It was meant rhetorically, but Hotch – ever the stubborn one, just like Emily herself – had to answer. "The whole issue with Kate…"

"We were lucky to have her," she said, quoting his earlier words with a gentle smile. She knew her answer wasn't exactly related to what he had been getting at, but neither of them needed to dwell on the past. Their present would be perfectly fine, she was confident of it. Reaching forward to smooth down an upturned portion of his dress shirt's collar, she squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. "Now come on. Let's get on the road."

"Let's go home," he agreed, standing with Emily and fishing for something in his pocket.

It took a whole minute for his words to sink in. "Home?" Emily quoted, her heart written clearly across her features.

Finally pulling out a small red envelope, Hotch pressed it into her palm. "Home," he repeated.

Inside was a key. The key to his apartment, and the key to his heart.

**THE END.**

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><p><strong>Author's Note: Like it? Love it? Please please please leave a review; short or long, signed or anonymous, they always make my day. :)<strong>


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